At our PEI Home and School Federation board meeting this week we got a demonstration of the extent to which we limit our children's access to technology in the name of protecting them from technology and protecting ...

In general, our world lumps “art kids” in a different box than “sports kids.” When you add in media representations of art kids being quirky, awkward loners or misunderstood geniuses, the separation grows more distinct.

"Instructional Design is all about presenting online learners with information in a way that's easy to understand and digest. Here are 6 proactive ways to make enlightening eLearning courses that are truly effective."

Foundwork — the new online platform designed to help connect artists with curators, gallerists, and other collaborators across the global art community — is now featuring artists from graduate and undergraduate studio art programs worldwide, including both students and alumni from any class year. The site opened in November, 2017 to artists from US MFA programs, and there are now artists from over 100 schools in the US and abroad participating.

Are you ready to take your school publication to the next level? Interactive media can help boost engagement in your content and attract more viewers to your site. Here are three tools to help you get there.

In the early aughts of the 21st century, the cost of a laptop ran close to $1000. The idea of producing one that would sell for $100 and be sent to children in Latin America, Africa, and Asia who may or may not have had a schoolhouse or teacher caused giggles among tech engineers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists. A contemporary of Seymour Papert and head of a center at Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Nicholas Negroponte believed that cheap, durable, and Internet-connected machines could revolutionize teaching and learning. He told conferees in 2010:

"I am a school librarian who has been teaching coding for a little over six years. In my first job with elementary school students, coding was like a game. I collaborated with our tech teacher to introduce students to coding logic using Kodable, Hopscotch, and Daisy the Dinosaur. Once a week, I dropped in on a fifth grade class to teach them to create games and animations using Scratch. I purchased an array of robots for the library: Ozobots, Dash and Dot, and Spheros, all of which brought coding to life by enacting the programs students wrote for them. Once a year in December, the tech teacher had every student in school participate in Hour of Code. These efforts aimed to show our students that computer coding is fun—and something everyone can do."

The purpose of education is to teach students lifelong learning skills that will help them navigate careers and relationships in their post-school lives. Aside from teaching core subjects, there are many important skills that are valuable to becoming successful. Here are 9 lifelong learning skills that can come in handy for future endeavours in life beyond school.

You’ll find our education system teaches some of these skills while others can potentially fall more into the category of personal responsibility. Share and discuss these ideas with your learners sometime. In addition, encourage them to explore the links for where they can work on developing this skills in their own time.

A new report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed that approximately two-thirds of eighth graders in American public schools were not proficient in reading and math last year.

The report, released by the U.S. Department of Education, revealed that 65% of eighth graders in public schools were not proficient in reading and 67% were not proficient in math. The report also revealed that the results were significantly worse in urban districts. CNS News reports:

Only 5 percent of Detroit public-school eighth graders were proficient or better in math. Only 7 percent were proficient or better in reading.

In the Cleveland public schools, only 11 percent of eight graders were proficient or better in math and only 10 percent were proficient or better in reading.

In the Baltimore public schools, only 11 percent were proficient or better in math and only 13 percent were proficient or better in reading.

Schools would better to spend money on reading and math specialist rather than test...While test can help direct content they do not teach it. These state examines offer no personalized specific feedback on exactly why or what was failed...redirection is a roll of the dice. Wonder how many schools have lost specialist services paying for these expensive test? Specialist test and then target teaching services in all twelve grades. Still these numbers seem very extreme...After State and high stakes exams and holding students in the 3rd grade until they READ LIKE 3RD GRADERS IT SEEMS THE PRESSURE PUT ON EVERYONE WOULD HAVE GOTTEN BETTER RESULTS AT ALL LEVELS. May be well monitored self pace programs like SRA programs would be better than holding people back. Affordable after school and summer school programs are also a good idea....The program might be re-adapted with a different, more project based outcome the basic instruction leads towards.

LTE (Learning and Teaching Enhancement) are busy. Next month we launch Design for Active Learning (D4AL), our toolbox of designs and activities with a focus on building in feedback data about how students are learning and how successful/or not their learning activities are.

<p>Chingos and Dynarski describe gaps in the data that are available to track income differences in educational attainment and the pitfalls they create for analysts, and propose how to fill those gaps.</p>...

Creativity in the classroom provides a more relaxed and open environment for the students to freely express their opinions and to learn faster. Here are some tips for helping teachers add creativity to the curriculum.

Along with Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality is quickly becoming popular in the classroom. One of the most popular AR experiences right now is the Merge Cube. With a recent hot dollar deal on the Merge Cube at local Walmarts, many teachers caught the craze and bought out entire stocks of this amazing AR tool! But now what? What do you do with all those Merge Cubes in your possession and how can they be useful in the classroom? Let’s dig a little deeper and find out!

Along with Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality is quickly becoming popular in the classroom. One of the most popular AR experiences right now is the Merge Cube. With a recent hot dollar deal on the Merge Cube at local Walmarts, many teachers caught the craze and bought out entire stocks of this amazing AR tool! But now what? What do you do with all those Merge Cubes in your possession and how can they be useful in the classroom? Let’s dig a little deeper and find out!

Kelia Colon, a high school math teacher at ENLACE Academy in Lawrence, Mass., explains how she incorporates writing into her math lessons for English-language learners. By using supports such as a word bank and sentence-structure charts, students can practice literacy skills during math lessons.

THE 3-D PRINTER in the Peabody (MA) Institute Library’s basement Creativity Lab might be what draws teens to the space, but it’s not always what they spend the most time using.

One group of boys is fascinated by the sewing machines. “They come in because of the tech, and then they get involved in the [other] things,” says Cate Merlin, teen and special projects librarian for the library’s main branch.

At Dover (AR) High School, library media specialist Janet Kanady has seen a similar response. “We came close to having enough kids knitting to form our own club,” Kanady says. As it turned out, they were more interested in an old electric typewriter. “They are completely fascinated by it.”

It’s hard to predict what will capture teens’ attention in a makerspace, so flexibility is key with this age group. Kanady also finds that a hands-off approach works best for students who use her library’s “tinker spot.” She says, “They have always amazed me on the things they come up with. Maybe that is a part of the appeal of it. They aren’t forced to do it just one way.”

Social media overload is real. Being a connected educator can be overwhelming, especially if you have been given a ton of information at once. Do you ever wonder how colleagues stay so connected and make it look so seamless? Let me let you in on a little secret. They all use sites and/or apps to manage their connectedness. Some apps, like Instagram, allow you to set up this feature in the app. Other times, using a different site and/or app is more ideal.

I’m sharing a few of my favorite sites and apps to manage my connections, and I’ll also share one that came up repeatedly when I asked my PLN for their favorite social media management apps.

With competing online programs a click away, it would be wise to treat prospective students like consumers. Colleges and universities need to realize they are no longer the only game in town and students now have multiple options.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.